to whom I said: if he did not supply the naval officer with money to repair the Romney, from the Company's treasury, she might swamp in the river, and their interests, as far as regarded her, might go unprotected, as I never would sanction a bill to be drawn at a higher rate than the Company's exchange.'

"I am aware I was a very unpopular character at Calcutta, because I ordered all the provisions shipped from the army in Egypt to be surveyed; and some were relanded and condemned on the quays:-nor was it my good fortune to be on the best terms with Mr. Louis, (the naval officer), although Admiral Rainier spoke of him in the highest terms when he officially announced to me his appointment, &c.

"I have intruded myself very much on your Lordship's leisure, with a view of convincing you I am not unworthy of active employment at this moment, and of having an opportunity of proposing some enterprise to your Lordship, which you might think expedient to be undertaken at so critical a moment, when it is incumbent on every officer possessing local knowledge, and the experience of making observations, to submit his ideas and plans to Go

vernment.

"I have the honour to be, &c."

As his Lordship still declined a personal interview, and referred him to the Secretary of the Admiralty, Sir Home immediately transmitted a letter to that as well as to the Navy Board, requesting his accounts

to

to be investigated immediately, to call for his personal attendance whenever required, and to accelerate the Report on his conduct. This Report, which appears to have been drawn up by a gentleman who possessed the confidence of the First Lord of the Admiralty, and had lately obtained the place of a Commissioner of the Navy Board, at length made its appearance. It was certainly penned with ability, and contained a variety of implications, some of them of a very gross nature, particularly as to the expenditure of stores, the proceeding to Bengal instead of Bombay from interested motives, and the excessive charges attendant on the repairs there.

It must be candidly owned, that the gross charge of seventy-one thousand rupees, or about nine thousand pounds sterling, at the first blush appears extravagant; but if, on the other hand, the work done to the

* The following is an extract from the carpenter's bill:

1. The head for planks, timber-wood of different descriptions, copper bolts, iron, copper for three sheets round the ship, &c. &c. about

2. Labour of Europeans and black workmen, caulking inside and out, and all the repairs abaft

3. The hire of vessels to receive the people, of budgerows and boats to carry all the stores, and bring anchors and cables over, &c. &c.

When the builder's percentage was added to this, the whole amounted to

Rupees.

Sterling.

• 30,000

£.3750

• 15,000

1825

- 15,000

1825

- 71,000

9000

Oiseau,

Oiseau, Heroine, La Forte, &c. was proved to have been performed on a scale to the full as expensive; and if no charge of participation could be brought home to the commander of the Romney, the only inference that can be fairly drawn is, that Bengal ought hereafter to be considered as a very improper place for refitting of any of His Majesty's ships.

In the mean time Captain Sir Home Popham, who had been absent from England during the general election in 1802, became desirous of a seat in par Jiament, and about this period was returned for the borough of Yarmouth, in the Isle of Wight. As he had been both promoted and appointed to his late command during the Pitt administration, it is not to be wondered if he supported the right honourable gentleman, considered as its head when out of place, and declared himself pretty explicitly against the Addingtonians, more especially that portion of them who presided at the Board of Admiralty. He accordingly was very severe on the official state of the navy presented to the House, which indeed appears to have been drawn up with haste, and on this occasion he pointed out several gross errors in it.

His own conduct, however, was now soon threatened with parliamentary investigation; for a young member of great promise gave notice of his intention to move for a committee to inquire into the

*

* The Honourable Charles (now Lord) Kinnaird, member for Leominster, in the county of Hereford.

charges

charges adduced in the report from the Navy Board, while one of his own officers was pressed by order of a member of the Board of Admiralty, and treated with a degree of rigour which afterwards became the subject of public animadversion. An imprest was also laid on his pay and half-pay, and notice was given to him, that the charges respecting the expenditure of the Romney were to be laid before the Commissioners of Inquiry into Naval Abuses.

In consequence of a sudden change in the. administration, a new Minister, and a new First Lord, in a short time after this, presided at the heads of the Treasury and Admiralty Boards. Hopes were now entertained by the subject of this memoir, of being again employed; and accordingly a few months after the nomination of Lord Melville, who had before patronized him, he was appointed to the command of the Antelope.

It may be proper here to observe, that Lord Sidmouth, while in office, had been attracted by the report of certain experiments which had taken place in France, relative to the possibility of destroying an enemy's fleet by means never before put in practice. This fact was mentioned with such confidence in the House of Peers, that he invited the inventor to England, and thus gave birth to what was afterwards ludicrously termed the Catamaran Expedition.

As the gentleman with whom the scheme originated afterwards demanded an officer of known talents and intrepidity for its execution, Sir Home 1805-1806. Popham

Ff

and

Popham was now appointed for this purpose, two vessels were actually destroyed off Boulogne during the summer of 1804. An attack on a grand scale being afterwards intended, the battery of Fort Rouge was chosen as the spot against which the united efforts of these new engines of destruction were to be tried. Accordingly on the 9th of December, in consequence of orders from Lord Keith, an effort was made for this purpose,* under the

* Admiralty-Office, Dec. 15. Copy of a Letter from the Right Honourable Lord Keith, Admiral of the Blue, &c. &c. to William Marsden, Esq. dated on board the Monarch, off Ramsgate, Dec. 11, 1804.

SIR,

Divisions of the enemy's flotilla passing from the eastward towards Boulogne, having frequently when pursued by his Majesty's ships and vessels taken shelter in the harbour of Calais, their entry into which has been particularly covered and protected by the advanced pile battery of Fort Rouge, I considered it an object of some importance to effect the destruction of that work, and lately directed Captain Sir Home Popham, of the Antelope, among other objects, to hold in view a favourable opportunity for making this attempt. I now transmit, for their Lordships information, a letter, and the enclosures to which it refers, which I have received from that officer, reporting the result of an assault which he directed to be made upon it early on the morning of the 9th instant, and from which there is reason to conclude that the fort has sustained material damage; but that from the unfortunate circumstance of its not having been possible, under the existing state of the weather and tide, to carry up two of the explosion vessels to the point of attack, the injury has been far less extensive than might have been otherwise expected. The conduct of Lieutenant Hew Steuart, of the Monarch, on this recent ccasion, cannot fail, I am sure, to excite their Lordships' ad

miration